Reviews

Not deep, just a good time.

This is a very enjoyable series if you're looking to turn your brain off and just have a good time, and I mean this in a positive way. I honestly enjoyed it a lot just vibing along and not taking the plot too seriously.

In terms of technical things like story/cinematography/script/editing/etc. it's extremely average (not terrible, I've definitely seen worse). If you're in here expecting something fresh or groundbreaking, you will be disappointed.

For me the enjoyment comes mainly from the 3 main characters (Yan Dan, Ying Yuan, Yu Mo). All 3 roles were well acted, I didn't find their characters annoying (yes, Yang Zi has played very similar roles before, but honestly she's quite good at it), and their interactions with each other are super fun to watch, especially when they are in the human realm and all kinds of shenanigans are happening. Even though both men are in love with the same woman they don't let that get in the way of working together or make things difficult for the FL. The FL also doesn't cause unnecessary drama that break up their 3-person team. It's clear by the end of the drama that their camaraderie is a core part of the drama that the writing team purposely kept intact to the very end.

As for the romance, the main romance (Ying Yuan and Yan Dan) is nothing to write home about story-wise, but very enjoyable because the actors are charismatic and good at what they do, and they look great doing it. I highly recommend fans of Yang Zi and/or Cheng Yi watch this because they're just a joy to watch (especially fans of Cheng Yi because it's fascinating seeing him play 3 characters in one show).

Read More

The Slipperiest Time Slip!

This drama turned out to be a reverse harem in disguise. A handful of princes with varied flavors happened to meet a mentally handicapped girl to start their quest of hunting this wild female from a different timeline. All of these princes have the edgiest troubled teens behaviors with a mix of daddy/mommy issues. Out of all of them, the male lead took the edge in being the ultimate dark and mysterious bad boy, literally. Zooming out, all of this was done for a trail of pathetic emotional baits with no substance, they were begging the viewers for pity points. The moment the female lead knew about them, she approached every single one with the mentality of "I can fix him". While the princes were intentionally irrecoverably broken by the writer to serve a purpose for the female lead, she equally had her own set of problems. Within the span of a few episodes she became weirdly too attached to all of them and going even further to offer sacrifices, while neglecting her brief arrival and the fact that she was transferred to the past, but I guess shirtless bois are irresistible. The romantic entanglements in general were agonizing to tolerate, it kept you wishing the worse for all of them. Although it was bad as is, but why did they decide to make it worse with each passing episode in the second half? It's just too painful knowing the writer is making fun of us. At least the cinematography was okay and I watched it on BluRay.

Read More

Under the Queen's Stares

The drama really needed a better introduction to establish itself properly, it took me a while before it captured my interest. Others may not have the patience. By the time the drama finished, I had no idea how many princes were there. Most of them barely got any screen time, yet had some small side stories. While the prominent ones didn't develop enough. Quality over quantity would've been the right approach. I found the ending to be too subdued, soft, and tame after spending 16 very long episodes of building tension through countless slow-mo shots, mean stares, and passive-aggressive empty threats. This was another area that was lacking, the drama needed more ways to build tension. The drama had some unjustifiable, unwarranted, and under-delivered preachy moments that yanked the viewers out and ruined the atmosphere. This seems to be a common trend with modern titles. Anyway, I see that "Comedy" is one of its listed genres, although it had relatively lighter moments every now and then but these didn't adhere to the comedy genre in any shape or form. I would remove the tag as it's misleading. Speaking of misleading, the synopsis's description of the queen's character was mostly wrong and didn't translate as such into the screen.

Read More

The Loathful Emperor

It started off on a fast pace with big cuts, jumps and gaps. We were thrown right into it with little to no explanation or a breathing room. Sure thing that was attractive enough to hold onto the viewers' attention but that was only for a brief period before the drama hit the brakes at full force yanking the viewers from the realm of existence. Halting its momentum to an irrecoverable state which affected the set up we were given, negatively. Not only the momentum but the story as a whole took a shift for the worse. That shift happened to early to be forgiven, after 7-9 episodes I think? If the writers intent was to write Ta Hwan as an unbearably pathetic whimp then they have achieved an outstanding success! Upon a second look, there were too many males to count who were obsessed with the female lead, this drama was a complicated reverse harem in disguise. Some characters had cool story arcs, while others were just stuck being one-dimensional, making it hard to care about them while the drama kept giving them more screen time. Even worse, most of the characters that died were given a cheap death, even important ones. Anyway, the drama had an enjoyable start despite the chaos but it never managed to recover after slamming the brakes.

Read More

Live Up to Your Shame

Things can get really muddy when talking about the science of acupuncture, although this is a fantasy but to try and push one narrative over the other this desperately is a tough sell in this scenario. I don't think the drama managed to navigate mixed medicine practices from a modern medicine point of view successfully. In fact, the entire thing was dropped very quickly a few episodes later without being brought up again. So why did they ever bother? The first 5 episodes were enjoyable without overbearing time-travel cliches. However, everything turned to worse with episode 6, that's where they introduced your typical mundane cheese of someone who traveled in time. At this exact point, there was a harsh shift in the story, everything slowed down, and a plethora of extreme suspension of disbelief elements in contrast to the world building they had established were thrown in. Although we got brief hints of the story at the beginning from her grandpa and that one prisoner but it felt like it won't address these points until the last few episodes and that turned out to be true. Although I enjoyed the first 5 episodes but the rest were just disappointing.

Read More

The Lame Queen Seondeok

It would have been such a good show if they packaged it into 30 episodes. They had two subplots about Hwarang side quests that were a total waste of time, they paused the main story for them. While they might have served a small tiny purpose but the drama could've accomplished that without these easily. I read somewhere that the drama was extended from 50 to 62 episodes and I can't help but wonder if there was a direct correlation between extending the drama and introducing the character Kim Chun Chu at episode 36. Because both decisions were worse than one another. What made me more suspicious that this was the case was because it felt like someone has pushed the soft reset button on the story as a whole around episode 36 and everything took a big step backward. At this exact point I was about to mentally check out. Prior to episode 36, they had this Hwarang competition which was already the weakest checkpoint at this point so what came after only made things worse. Fast forward to the last chunk of episodes, all events post Lady Mi Shil involvement were clearly an unplanned afterthought which led to an underwhelming final climax. The is exactly at the extension gap between 50-62. Away from the poor pacing, the characters showed promise until they stopped. Guess what? It happened also after episode 36, the female lead who used to be a character full of characterization became a soulless blank of wood, boring, bland and dumb. There were many other examples of characters who went through the same downgraded transformation around the cursed episode 36.

The story had one major point of disconnect that the writer blatantly swept under the rug, it single-handedly broke the story apart. The female lead came from a hermit living in the woods into her position of power immediately without any regard to any other factors concerning anything. The only justification we were given is that she read books while growing up and was raised in the streets. Her parents had no role in the process despite being the king and queen, not even for emotional support. All I see is just poor storytelling. The background music mixing was trash. Every scene started with low-ish background music, got progressively louder and became unbearably loud and intense until the scene is cut. Repeat this 20 times every episode and endure the nausea. Around midway through I was thinking this is a good 7/10 drama despite the Hwarang nonsense but it turns out that this drama was the perfect example of a drama having a good 1st half and fumbling the 2nd half so hard. I wouldn't give it more than a pitiful 5.5/10.

Read More

Good Story - had promise - have the fast forward button at the ready

Good story but, as is usual - they drag it out for far too long. This could have been finished in 16 episodes.

Character wise - good mix of nice cast but, the annoying characters are in far too many scenes. Have your finger on the fast forward button at all times. Xiao Mi is just awful and I can't stand anything she says or, does. Very immature. Self centered. And how on god's green earth did she ever make it into college? I would worry for her if she put her head in a paper bag.

I agree with many of the other reviews. As you learn more and more about the main characters - you will wish they WON'T get together. Really? Drag it out to the last episode?

I stuck with it. I agree with others - not enough time is spent when it comes to the actual fights/tournaments - it becomes a bad edit music video. Prepare for them to spend an eternity in prep for competition and then, the actual thing being over in just a few minutes because they want to spend 80 percent of the time on junk that means nothing. They REALLY take advantage of the stock footage they created of the school grounds. They are always exercising - always doing the same thing - always sunny and blue skies - always flipping the same tires in the same spots. Grinds my gears...

There are some WONDERFUL characters and the writers gave them some great material. That is why I stuck with every episode. Pick and choose - fast forward - and, you will get through this in half the time and still enjoy the overall story.

Want to be ready?
Lazy writing. Character gets abused and used by people with money but, there is NEVER any compensation.
There is a near death and AGAIN - no money - no compensation. Everything is handled under the table and the poor people get to stay happily poor. God forbid rich bad people get in trouble in a Chinese drama. That might give the common folk some dangerous ideas to society itself.
Grandfather stays pure evil until the very end. I kept yelling at the screen for him to have a heart attack or, something.
Xiao Mi - terrible. You can safely fast forward through everything she is in and not miss a single thing to the overall story. Her stubborn immaturity is a drag on the entire series.
Child actors - why couldn't they have been traumatized by something and not speak for 34 of the 37 episodes?
The on again off again of all the relationships REALLY shows the emotional immaturity of most of the cast (as written). College? Really?

Read More

Ja Must Go

Well, I had a little higher than usual expectations from looking at the cast members but at least it didn't take too long to realize what it had in store for us. The drama kicked off to a bad start leaving an ominous bad impression. The first 1/3 of the drama was set in the past giving us a ridiculously boring and generic backstory of the leads, starting with their parents and moving on to their birth, early childhood, and teenage years. These kids turned out to be the worst part of the drama, totally unlikable – both the characters and the actors playing them. And it didn't get any better when we were introduced to their adult versions. The romance and love triangle were downright despicable, filled with self-pity, sappy motivations, and a bunch of whiny kids. A wild suggestion, why not take the drama from the beginning of episode 39 into a different direction? Extend it with another 20 episodes, remove the romance, have the FL be the empress of her nation, and conquer neighboring nations.

Read More

BEST KDRAMA

I love True Beauty so much. I have rewatched it 5 times and i still havent gotten bored. Seojun deserved better but in the end he became an idol soo.. Honestly what Soojin did was NOT okay, But still lover her! The story and plot was literally so good. Acting was also great but my girl can be little cringe sometimes.. OST is still so good. Starlight and Love so fine are my favs for sure. Tae Hoon and Soo Ah on top for sure. Team Soo Ho and Team SeoJun because they were both so good for her but i literally cry everytime i watch episode 16. I dont get why people hate True Beauty, like just say you hate fun cutesy dramas ?

Cha Eunwoo so fine ?

Read More

This is a very good and entertaining drama. From here on, the rest of this review is full of SPOILERS! This drama is a television series derived from the Korean manhwa of the same name but, given that it is a spin off, it has its own plot. The drama is not about a showdown of powers that the water god Ha Baek (played by Nam Joo Hyuk) and the other involved gods have; it is a fantasy romantic comedy that focuses on the developing relationship between Ha Baek and his servant Yoon So Ah (played by Shin Sae Kyeong). Taken as a romantic drama between God and servant, and other insufferable gods, this drama was nicely done. The leading lady, Yoon So Ah, is a character that carries deep wounds from her dysfunctional parental upbringing and the water god, He Baek, comes to the human realm with a mission. Both leading characters clashed for been presumptuous and self serving given the nature of their backgrounds but, as they experience adversity, tantrums from Moo Ra/He Ra (played by Krystal Jung), a goddess from the Water Kingdom and Bi Ryum / Ahn Bin (played by Gong Myung) a wind god, jealousy, and their own misconceptions, they grow to understand each other and from then on, a steadfast and nice romance develops. Although there are too many stiffed facial expressions, a leading lady that spends most of the drama in tears, quirky characters to bring comedy forth, and a spoil brat that provides some antagonistic instances, at the end of the day, the leading couple has a happy ending and there is also a smart twist to one of the gods. As said before, the drama is entertaining, enjoy it!

Read More

A slice of life drama without the drama

It's as bare bones as it gets with this Slice of Life show. While providing incite into being a 30-something woman, having relatable workplace and human conflicts,there is little to no real plot. No melodramatics. No steamy scenes. It's just a very quick, lighthearted "Day in the life" kind of show. Episodes for 10-13 minutes long on YouTube so you can paint your nails or fold some clothes while watching. You won't miss a thing if you look away a few times either because again,there's no real plot. It still put me in a content mood after I finished so I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. I'm just glad it was honest about what it was trying to portray.

Read More

Love this!

For real, the first 4 episodes had me hysterically laughing, I got a coughing fit every few minutes and weezed like a granny walking up the stairs! The side couple could tell a story with their mimic alone and their chemistry was phenomenel! Their little glances and touches, their syncronized movements, I fell in love at first sight!

Khao is such a great actor and can be paired up with a bag rice, I would still feel their connection and believe his love for the rice! He played Chon beautifully! Neo, ma boy, he is so talented, I love seeing him younger and in different roles, he always gives depth to the characters without loosing his charm or comedic talent. The other actors and actresses did a great job, too, I loved the way Ton got played.
Chon's mom deserves a medal for the best mom, the cussing in the last episode was hilarious! Ping is such a great friend, everyone should have a Ping! Miriam was at the beginning somewhat meh, but I really learned to love and support her!

At episode 5 the tune shifts and it gets more serious, but Ai and Ni always get the timing right for another hilarious moment. I really liked the story, it was light at the beginning, never boring ( the only thing that really got on my nerves was Amp. Girl, you lost!!! ) and the fight with oneself, to truly accept what you are feeling was beautifully portrait by the actor of Ton.

All in all, a nice drama with a lot of humor and more serious parts, a silly happy ending and sweet moments with a fresh couple and one that is already together for years. You can see the difference, and feel it, and that was so cute! I'm just a little sad that the kiss scenes from AiNi got cut in the post production, but there are a lot of sweet noments, gazes and touches that make up for it! I just like physical show of affirmation more than words, it's my way of showing love, so I naturally seek something like that in series, movies and such.

Give it a try, but I remind you: It's nothing to take seriously. Just enjoy the humour and the chemistry (between actors and characters) and their beautiful friendship!

Read More

Yu shuxin acting skills is getting more and more wonderful, I'm not a fan of xianxia dramas but yu shuxin xianxia dramas is on another level , she is good in both xianxia and wu xia , there are many sword and fairy seasons but this one is going to be the best season with best cast and storyline, although there are many seasons but you don't need to watch another season to watch this drama , because the storyline everything is different but idk why the name is same but anyway this one of the best xianxia drama no one can defeat yu shuxin when it comes to cute looks , if anyone reading this comment and haven't watched this drama yet i would say just go for it ,also if you don't know yu shuxin yet i would recommend to check out her dramas ,she is a great actress !

Read More

the reality check in life

Honestly, I was skeptical of this drama at first but oh wow,
this drama gave me such a reality check in my life that it is embarrassing now. first of all the cameo's in this drama made it so interesting and literal eye candy to watch and the love, family relations, and all the frustration the main lead goes through portrays a big slice of life, honestly, I agree with the fact this kind of dramas answers to the questions we don't like to acknowledge in life, the drama is well written with binge-worthy thriller, romance, action, drama. they round up the best cast for this show . It's such a short but meaningful drama that everyone should watch

Read More

The lead characters made things interesting but ending was so poorly written (Happy ending)

When I started watching, I wasn't exactly a fan of the pairing but they both grew on me. I enjoyed some of their interactions, some were far too silly which again points to poor writing. In the hands of a good writer, this drama could have done a much better job.

The time travel element wasn't ever fully explained.
Why did it happen?
Who sent her the message?
What happened when she back?

What spoils the story is that they went so far to create a clear distinction between Lin Miao and Lin Wei Jun, so much so that it is very difficult to reconcile that they are one person. The ending is so rushed and ambiguous that the viewers are left to figure out what happened.

The simplest explanation should be: Lin Miao went back to her time 10 years in the future, during these 10 years Lin Wei Jun grew into herself becoming Lin Miao and that was who came back for Jiao Yang who waited for her.

But then so many new questions arise. Since Lin Wei Jun life was altered by her future self and Jiao Yang, wouldn't her future self have new memories? Would she be the same Lin Miao that visited the past? Or would she be more like her past self? And what does that mean for their relationship?

Read More